Wichita eagle., 1887-07-17
THELARGESTC CITY
In the Great State Of Kansas is
Wonderful Wichita,
Fourth to First Place In
Kansas, Cities

lcLltG DS IuS Ollclal CENSUS uSuieS TO
turned to the state auditor at Topeka is
shown to be the most populous as well as the
wealthiest city in Kansas Although every
one who comes to Wichita readily places her
population at anywhere from 35 600 to 10, !
900, and her new city directory shows the
astonishing total Of 1860 names of persons
over Is years of age, exclusive of women
who are not engaged in business on their
own account, which taken on the
usual basis of calculation three and one
half would give US no less
than 81 ,276. Wichita has been honest
| enough to abide by the returns made by the
| assessors; however much complaint there is
concerning the same. The assessors figures
show population of 3I,760, which is tho
largest number shown by any city in the
state.
Topeka has also gotten out directory
| with II ,043 namesin it. From this Topeka
gets population of IS, TAI by the simple pro-
cess of multiplying by three and half, which
same rate wsuld give Wichita 81 1855.
Now the Wichita has been frank enough to
est form as shown by an actual count of the
population. Which heaven knows places
her in the front rank OF re-
markable cities These figures
we say were given to the public.
Not so with Topeka, she dies hard. The
actual figures as returned by Topeka's asses
sors show that city to have population, by
CT nsus, of 90, S00-instead of 80, TAI, the fig
ures her press have willfully, falsely given
to the world when they knew the figures they
were endeavoring to suppress, showed no
such result.
Yes the Topeka papers have wickedly tried
to make the world at large swallow lie, but
the Figures wont lie." They are caught and
must not attempt to deny it, or we will be
under the painful necessity of humilia:ing
them still further, by producing the records
from uni Ter their very eyes. Now, we hope
they will never be guilty of SO little decep-
ton again. In fact we know they won't at
tempt it again, because it will be useless
Wichita's actual census next year will
SO much greater than Topeka's directory by
l-2 population, that she will not even say
much about that inflated estimate of her sup
posed size.
The Topeka Capital publishes the follow
ing remarkable table showing the rapid de-
velopment of Kansas towns. The table is in
teresting and is also uthen ic until it comes
to this year, 1887. There the Capital lin
order to make Topeka out rank Wichita,
falls, allows its instinct for romancing to
override the truth. 1t will be noticed that
in 1870. Wichita was too small to be talked
about, in the same class as Fort Scott, OF
tawa and Emporia. In 1880 Wichita had be-
gun to show speed as a possible dark horse
and had pulled up to seventh place, passing
Emporia and Ottawa.
By good jockeyiDg she lad pushed to
fourth place, passing, Lawrence, Atchison
and Fort Scott in 1885,
But in 1887 Wichita got her second wind
and passed them ALL even Leavenworth,
Topeka and Wyandotte at the last turn
and is coming down the home stretch in
creasing her lead at every stride, an easy
winner with a slack rein.
I'm 1870 Kansas naQ ten clues Oh over @,ooo
population, nce she has 81 such cts, and
ranks fourth among the states of the Unicu
for the number of her thriving cities of 1000
people and upwards. Massachusetts heads
the lists with IS, New York comes second
with 50, Pennsylvania third with So, Kansas
fourth with 81 and Ohio fifth with AZ. Kan
sas had 1O5 cities of over 900 people in 1886
and this year has added at least twenty add-
tional names to the list.
The following population of the leading
cities of Kansas was reported in the
A in 1871.